This project is providing the Australian horticulture industry with a roadmap that explores options towards establishing industry-agreed ESG parameters and their potential within existing commercial platforms used by horticulture producers.  

Challenge 

Consumers, retailers, export markets, and corporate multinationals are demanding agricultural industries operate sustainably and reduce carbon emissions.  Cheap, accurate, and validated methods to quantify environmental performance are urgently needed; digital remote monitoring can fulfil this need, while also improving efficiency and profitability on farm.  

If the horticulture industry does not act now and support the development of ESG metrics for measuring and reporting environmental performance, agricultural software developers will respond to this need by developing a myriad of systems using different tools and standards, and the opportunity for industry coordination be lost.  

Response 

The project team will review measurable environmental, social and governance (ESG) parameters relevant to horticulture and assess the feasibility of established and emerging digital tools. These tasks will inform the development of a common set of ESG metrics for Australian horticulture and provide a thorough understanding of the gaps and opportunities for digital tools. 

A concept called SmartLink has been developed through extensive consultation with industry stakeholders and is based on the outcomes of a Hort Innovation-led Smart Farming project (ST19023). Primarily focusing on linking to currently used software, SmartLink will allow growers to seamlessly connect to a data exchange which streamlines quality assurance, simplifies environmental monitoring and provides advanced productivity metrics.  

Importantly, SmartLink will simplify auditing, with a focus on streamlining virtual and remote QA programs that agnostically align with farm management packages, thereby reducing costs to growers and improving the efficiency and ease of QA compliance and improvement. The concept needs further scoping in collaboration with industry, to ensure that it is fit for purpose, does not duplicate existing work, and provides real value to growers. 

Benefit 

A solution to this issue will ensure that growers have access to objective data, allowing them to optimise input use, maximise yield, reduce labour requirements and improve market access.